Coming soon to a website near you
With people spending more time watching videos online, animation and short filmmakers have a new avenue to explore
In all likelihood, 3 would have been just another Tamil film — popular, perhaps, in Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India, but mostly unknown in the north. Few regional films make an impact with their marketing campaigns all over the country. However, in less than two weeks, a video of the song 'Why this kolaveri di', from 3, was viewed over 10 million times on YouTube, making it a worldwide phenomenon. When 3 releases next year, you can be sure the film will be keenly followed all over the country.
Video-sharing websites like YouTube and Yahoo are now dedicating channels to entertainment, Bollywood films for instance. Providing content to them are film distribution companies like T Series and Shemaroo, who traditionally licensed movies to TV channels or distributed them on DVDs. According to industry experts, Indians on an average are watching videos that are around 20min long, up from 3-4min videos five years ago. And an online release is now part of the overall marketing and distribution strategies for many filmmakers. In the last one year, big ticket films like Dabangg, Ready, 3 Idiots and Ishqiya have been released online.
But online channels are also giving smaller films an opportunity to broaden their reach to domestic as well as international audiences. For instance, Striker (2010), a low-budget film, couldn't get a release in foreign markets. Instead, Striker was put up on the rentals section of YouTube, available to users in the US. In other foreign markets, it was available online free of cost, but was ad-supported.
While there are no figures to indicate how much these small films benefit, monetarily, from an online release, they get to compete with big-ticket films on a common platform.
Boost for animation industry
Last month, animated children's film, Super K, was released first on Yahoo! Movieplex, the portal's movie-watching platform. "Super K was not conceptualised as an online film," says Smita Maroo, producer of the film, "During our focus group surveys, we found that there are a lot of parents who find it difficult to take their children to movies, because the show timings don't always suit the entire family. That's when we decided to release the movie online first, and then to distribute it through DVDs and satellite TV."
In India, animated films are often left by the wayside when big films blitzkrieg cinema screens in a bid to earn maximum returns over the weekend. "Animated films make money when they are liked by people and are watched multiple times. But when a big film is slated for release, animated films are the first to move out of multiplexes. So, if we had to release the film theatrically, it would get at most 100 screens as against the 3,000 screens kept aside for a Ra.One. But on the online platform, both films stand the same chance of connecting. Also, the film can be viewed multiple times that way," says Maroo.
Of course, big films with their star attraction will probably still get a higher number of clicks. But to get your film on the same website where a commercial potboiler is being shows is a big step forward for small filmmakers.
Shorter films stand a better chance
Online platforms are also innovating to get more traffic to their websites. Yahoo Movieplex, for instance, has a section called Mini Movies where you can see 20min versions of films like Ishqiya. Watching the film at a truncated running time might take away from its essence sometimes, but for someone on the go, it might not be such a bad idea.
It's a boon for short filmmakers too. After having finished the festival circuit, putting up a short film on YouTube or Vimeo makes perfect sense. Vikas Chandra who recently released his short film Project 11 online, says, "It helps in terms of putting your name out; show that you have it in you."
However, these are still early days. While on-demand movies served via the internet are gaining some popularity, movies that are streamed usually have low audio and video quality. Moreover, video platforms and film distributors are mum on the issue of revenue earned via online distribution. In that sense, is the online movie revolution still a few years ahead?
With people spending more time watching videos online, animation and short filmmakers have a new avenue to explore
In all likelihood, 3 would have been just another Tamil film — popular, perhaps, in Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India, but mostly unknown in the north. Few regional films make an impact with their marketing campaigns all over the country. However, in less than two weeks, a video of the song 'Why this kolaveri di', from 3, was viewed over 10 million times on YouTube, making it a worldwide phenomenon. When 3 releases next year, you can be sure the film will be keenly followed all over the country.
Video-sharing websites like YouTube and Yahoo are now dedicating channels to entertainment, Bollywood films for instance. Providing content to them are film distribution companies like T Series and Shemaroo, who traditionally licensed movies to TV channels or distributed them on DVDs. According to industry experts, Indians on an average are watching videos that are around 20min long, up from 3-4min videos five years ago. And an online release is now part of the overall marketing and distribution strategies for many filmmakers. In the last one year, big ticket films like Dabangg, Ready, 3 Idiots and Ishqiya have been released online.
But online channels are also giving smaller films an opportunity to broaden their reach to domestic as well as international audiences. For instance, Striker (2010), a low-budget film, couldn't get a release in foreign markets. Instead, Striker was put up on the rentals section of YouTube, available to users in the US. In other foreign markets, it was available online free of cost, but was ad-supported.
While there are no figures to indicate how much these small films benefit, monetarily, from an online release, they get to compete with big-ticket films on a common platform.
Boost for animation industry
Last month, animated children's film, Super K, was released first on Yahoo! Movieplex, the portal's movie-watching platform. "Super K was not conceptualised as an online film," says Smita Maroo, producer of the film, "During our focus group surveys, we found that there are a lot of parents who find it difficult to take their children to movies, because the show timings don't always suit the entire family. That's when we decided to release the movie online first, and then to distribute it through DVDs and satellite TV."
In India, animated films are often left by the wayside when big films blitzkrieg cinema screens in a bid to earn maximum returns over the weekend. "Animated films make money when they are liked by people and are watched multiple times. But when a big film is slated for release, animated films are the first to move out of multiplexes. So, if we had to release the film theatrically, it would get at most 100 screens as against the 3,000 screens kept aside for a Ra.One. But on the online platform, both films stand the same chance of connecting. Also, the film can be viewed multiple times that way," says Maroo.
Of course, big films with their star attraction will probably still get a higher number of clicks. But to get your film on the same website where a commercial potboiler is being shows is a big step forward for small filmmakers.
Shorter films stand a better chance
Online platforms are also innovating to get more traffic to their websites. Yahoo Movieplex, for instance, has a section called Mini Movies where you can see 20min versions of films like Ishqiya. Watching the film at a truncated running time might take away from its essence sometimes, but for someone on the go, it might not be such a bad idea.
It's a boon for short filmmakers too. After having finished the festival circuit, putting up a short film on YouTube or Vimeo makes perfect sense. Vikas Chandra who recently released his short film Project 11 online, says, "It helps in terms of putting your name out; show that you have it in you."
However, these are still early days. While on-demand movies served via the internet are gaining some popularity, movies that are streamed usually have low audio and video quality. Moreover, video platforms and film distributors are mum on the issue of revenue earned via online distribution. In that sense, is the online movie revolution still a few years ahead?
No comments:
Post a Comment